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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29900973">reasons wretched and divine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/londer/pseuds/londer'>londer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>d20 alphabet 2021 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dimension 20 (Web Series), The Unsleeping City</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Baby Names, D20 Alphabet, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Reunions, parenting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:35:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,440</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29900973</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/londer/pseuds/londer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sofie and Dale, through the years.</p><p>Days K-N for the D20 Alphabet</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dale Lee/Sofia Lee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>d20 alphabet 2021 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2189991</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Dimension 20 Alphabet 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>reasons wretched and divine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>yes i moved the prompts out of order okay</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>K / </span>
  <b>kiss</b>
  <span>, king, kitten</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I-?” Dale asks, and Sofie kisses him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s never had a first date quite like this. It hardly seemed real when the cute guy who kept coming in to the salon (despite 95% of their usual clientele being women) had asked her out, shyly slipping his number into her hand with his tip. He picked her up at her doorstep and offered her his arm to hold as they walked the few blocks to catch a train into the city proper. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They go to dinner, pressed knees touching at a tiny table that groans with huge bowls of pho and a plate of those cute little bean sprigs that Sofie can’t ever remember the name of. It’s warm in the restaurant, and it turns out Dale is left-handed so they’re able to hold hands on one side of the table while managing chopsticks on the other. Then they’re rushing uptown, just barely not late to their </span>
  <em>
    <span>escape room booking. </span>
  </em>
  <span>They get handcuffed together and locked in a small room. It’s pretty intense for a first date, being in close quarters in a fake-high-stakes scenario. They find out how they handle stress (Dale gets really quiet while trying to enter a combination into a lock, Sofie gets snappish but never at him directly), and victories (Dale </span>
  <em>
    <span>glows</span>
  </em>
  <span> with his grin, Sofie yells and punches the air). It’s comfortable to have something to work towards and no need for awkward small talk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Being opposite-handed helps a lot while they’re cuffed together, and they crush the room in forty minutes, landing a spot on the leaderboard for finish times. Then it’s back into the warm late-July streets, stopping for ice cream (peanut-butter chocolate for Sofie, non-dairy strawberry for Dale). They walk for an hour, maybe two, down into Central Park and through the winding leafy paths. Normally Sofie would think twice but Dale’s an accountant; he might have some nice biceps but Sofie’s from Staten Island, she bets she could take him or at least scream loud enough that someone will find her body quickly. They rehash the whole room and their best solves, talk about Staten Island, the terrible reality dating show it turns out they both secretly watch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sometimes, when Sofie wants someone to make a move or kiss her, she’ll do her little adjustments. Elbows under the boobs to make her cleavage stand out more, maintaining extra heavy eye contact up through her lashes, leaning in heavily against his chest, arm, shoulder as she walks alongside him tucked so nicely under his arm. She doesn’t need to fake it with Dale. Her body falls into his as if they’re gravitationally bound; their eyes meet in contact that’s both </span>
  <em>
    <span>take off your clothes and rail me</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>I could listen to you talk about mollusks for hours and not mind it</span>
  </em>
  <span>. When was the last time she laughed this much, felt this much joy? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They stop in a little cobblestone patio, lit with solar-powered fairy lights. Dale looks so fucking handsome and he looks at her like she’s art as he tucks a strand of her bangs back into place. Sofie’s whole chest feels tight with anticipation. He asks, and she kisses him before he can get the question out because she can’t imagine doing anything else. Dale’s hands are respectfully on her waist and she holds his shoulders and kisses him until she’s breathless. Their bodies press together easily and Dale is so warm and solid before her. Sofie doesn't believe in fate, but this feels pretty close.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>N / </span>
  <b>names</b>
  <span>, nature, night</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofie hoards notebooks and journals. It's hardly even intentional, she just keeps getting them for her birthday and Christmas and sometimes she'll be in the checkout line at Barnes and Nobles picking up a birthday present and just see the most darling little navy hardback journal with deer on it, and, well.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She has a drawer full of notebooks in her desk. Maybe a third of them have writing on the first ten pages. One or two are half filled with to-do lists and scribbled attempts at journaling. Sofie's never going to get through them all but they're all so damn </span>
  <em>
    <span>cute</span>
  </em>
  <span> that she's unwilling to let any of them go. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It's the perfect place to hide her list. An unassuming lilac notebook, soft cover with gold embossed lilies on the front. Midway through there are three lists. </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>Boy's Names: </span>
    </em>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span>   </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Jacob</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Dale Jr.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <strike>
    <em>
      <span>Mario</span>
    </em>
  </strike>
  <em>
    <span> (Mario will be a dick about this)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Arthur?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Peter</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>Girl's Names:</span>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Lily</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Maria</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Anna (Anna variants? Annabelle/Annamarie?)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Eleanor(a)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Victoria</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Leah</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>Girls' Middle Names:</span>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Anna</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Leigh/Lee</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Catherine/Katherine</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Mary</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Elizabeth</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She adds names as she comes across them (</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hannah, Megan, Christopher)</span>
  </em>
  <span>, removes them if she meets someone insufferable with that name (</span>
  <em>
    <span>Lindsay </span>
  </em>
  <span> from the salon</span>
  <em>
    <span>, Alexa </span>
  </em>
  <span>from the robot</span>
  <em>
    <span>, Marcus </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>Damien</span>
  </em>
  <span> from the assholes at the mechanics</span>
  <em>
    <span>)</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She burns the house, and the notebooks and names go up in the conflagration.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>M / music, </span>
  <b>morning</b>
</p><p>
  <span>The first morning after Dale comes back Sofie isn’t entirely sure she isn’t dreaming. She spoons up around him in the big bed of the hotel room they got for Dale to stay in while they figured out how to explain his sudden resurrection. He’s whole and real and warm and </span>
  <em>
    <span>breathing</span>
  </em>
  <span> in her arms. Sofie has to pinch herself and casts a little </span>
  <em>
    <span>dispel magic</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be sure that this is real, that the man she's loved for so long is really truly back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If it's an illusion, it's too strong for her magic, so she accepts this as reality and smushes her face into the crook of his neck. He still smells the same, even after three years, which maybe makes sense given that she hauled his body through time and space. Dale wakes up as she presses closer to him, a light sleeper like always. He rolls around to face her and wraps her up in his arms, still soft and warm from sleep. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofie kisses his forehead, his nose, the peaks of his cheekbones, then once gently on the mouth because they still have morning breath, yuck. Dale rolls his eyes fondly and then scoots away out of the bed and she makes a sad noise and tries to keep him in place. He wiggles away, and she falls happily face-first into the cozy warm dent in the bed where he had just been sleeping. Sofie relishes in the warm spot in the sheets for a few moments before heaving herself up and out of bed to stumble into the gross hotel bathroom lighting. Dale hands her a toothbrush already primed with water and toothpaste and she slumps against his side while they brush their teeth together.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>L / library, legends, </span>
  <b>lost</b>
</p><p>
  <span>"I can't find it!" Sofie says, scrabbling her hands under the couch and between the cushions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It's not in here either," Dale says, emerging from their dining room empty-handed. "Did we check in all our bags?" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Check again," Sofie replies morosely, pushing herself to her feet and quickly moving across the room to check on their daughter, fast asleep in her car carrier. If her blankie isn't in her hands when she wakes up, there's going to be hell to pay. "Maybe it's in the big diaper bag?" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dale says something from their bedroom that's muffled and unintelligible, but Sofie can guess. "The purple diaper bag, not the yellow one." Their girl fusses a little in her sleep and Sofie strokes her fat little cheek with one finger while she continues to scan the room. It's not on or under the coffee table, the couch is clear as is the coat rack and all the pockets. God, they really need to start stocking </span>
  <em>
    <span>locate object</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She checks the car seat, just to be sure, and triple-checks inside of the go bag they're bringing with them to Kingston's place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Got it!" She calls quietly and Dale makes a small whoop of happiness, emerging from their room. Sofie holds up the already raggedy square of yellow plaid triumphantly before tucking it into the car carrier beside her sleeping daughter. "We literally already packed it in her bag, I probably looked at it every time I opened the stupid thing and just never clocked it." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dale kisses the top of Sofie's head as she stands, and he picks up the carrier easily. "Hey, we found it eventually. Perfect first Christmas, you know, no tears, happy baby." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sofie shrugs on her coat and flips the last of their lights off, leaving just the tree on its timer to light their living room and they bundle out into the cold December air. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>you can find me on tumblr <a href="https://myclericalromance.tumblr.com">here</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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